Greater Idaho and its imitators

Greater Idaho returned to the news yesterday, with Fox News and The New York Post highlighting fresh legislative action. Now two bills are in the hopper in the Oregon legislature, calling for opening discussions to make it happen. No one expects either bill to pass, but expectations have a way of changing. What’s more, Greater Idaho has its imitators, in the State of Illinois and New York City. And at least one Democrat has identified the real reason: the Rural-Urban Divide, and which side of it the Democratic Party falls on.

Latest Greater Idaho news

Two weeks ago, Oregon State Rep. Mark Owens (R-Malheur Co.) introduced HB 3844. That bill calls for a committee to study the impact of shifting the Oregon-Idaho border from its present location along the Snake River, westward along the present Oregon-Washington border, then southward along the Cascade Mountains, and finally back eastward along the Oregon-California border. This impact includes its effect on certain industries and, presumably, agriculture.

In January, Oregon State Sen. Daniel Bonham (R-The Dalles) introduced SJM 7. That measure calls explicitly for talks between Oregon and Idaho on moving the border. Last year, Idaho’s House passed a similar measure, but that measure languished in the Idaho Senate. State Senates often have the same clubbish atmosphere and arcane debate rules as the United States Senate. That likely explains why the Idaho measure didn’t advance in an Idaho Senate with a Republican majority.

Predictably, the opposition comes from Democrats, who want the status quo. Idaho State Rep. Ned Burns (D) actually said such a measure would require amending each State’s Constitution. He also implied that such a measure would never pass Congress. But that was last year, and today’s Congress has Republican control of both chambers.

Sentiment for Greater Idaho

The Greater Idaho Movement maintains an interactive map of Oregon counties that have voted for the border shift. Malheur County was one of the first to vote in favor, and secessionist sentiment runs high in that county. Twelve other counties have voted in favor: Klamath, Lake, Harney, Jefferson, Crook, Wheeler, Grant, Baker, Sherman, Morrow, Union, and Wallowa. Four more counties wholly or partly east of the Cascades have yet to vote: Gilliam, Umatilla, Wasco, and Deschutes. (The proposed new border would split Wasco and Deschutes Counties almost straight down the middle.)

Recent reportage comes from the New York Post and Fox News. Both reports noted that residents of Eastern Oregon (East of the Cascades) took no part in the riots in Portland during the “Summer of Love” in 2020. That’s only one reason Eastern Oregonians would rather be Idahoans.

Today Eastern Oregon can’t pay for its own road upkeep – because the solons of Salem and the mavens of Multnomah (the county seated in Portland) don’t want anyone to extract mineral resources in that region. Current law and regulation mean the only profitable crop in Eastern Oregon is marijuana. Oregon also allows abortion practically on demand; Idaho forbids it. Idaho legislators have long noted the temptation to younger Idahoans to cross the Snake River, buy “tokes,” and return home.

Under Idaho law, these things would change. Idaho law forbids growing marijuana. Furthermore, Idaho would allow the mining that Oregon law now forbids.

Electoral consequences

One abortion provider remains in Eastern Oregon – in Ontario, Malheur County, Oregon, on the west bank of the Snake River. Under Idaho law, that clinic would close. Tellingly, all other Oregon abortion providers hang their shingles in Western Oregon. So that clinic in Ontario is probably – though not provably – the ideal “abortion tourist trap.” Maybe it also sees young women trafficked out of Idaho without the consent of their parents. That would stop.

But more to the point, Oregon would lose an electoral vote and a House district, which would both go to Idaho. The House district wouldn’t change; Eastern Oregon has always sent a Republican to the House (from District Two). But the electoral vote would definitely change, since that district would become part of Idaho, which Republicans always carry.

One can readily infer why the solons of Salem do not want to relinquish control of Eastern Oregon. That region costs the State plenty in road maintenance, so the practical consideration would militate for the border shift. But Oregon could solve that problem by allowing the sort of industries (in place of marijuana agriculture) that would let the region thrive economically. It won’t – because the environmental lobby wants mineral resources left in the ground.

Democrats on both sides of the Snake River talk about “a balance of different viewpoints” being good for “the U.S. political system.” But they won’t talk about Democratic one-party enclaves like Massachusetts, Vermont, or Delaware.

Conservatives across the US are voting to separate from Democrat-governance, yet those governments are refusing to let us go. Thanks to Fox news for highlighting the injustice. When people vote to change their governance and it’s denied, it’s authoritarianism, not democracy.

Conservatives across the US are voting to separate from Democrat-governance, yet those governments are refusing to let us go. Thanks to Fox news for highlighting the injustice. When people vote to change their governance and it's denied, it's authoritarianism, not democracy. https://t.co/qDvnLTo3oO— the Greater Idaho movement (@GreaterIdaho) February 17, 2025

And in Illinois and New York City…

Illinois shares with Oregon the problem of discontented rural counties now wishing to secede. Thirty-three Illinois counties have so voted. Most of these are on a contiguous region bordering on Indiana. A few more lie on the Iowa border.

Now the Speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives has introduced a bill to welcome all those counties into Indiana.

They might have to compete with Iowa, which has a bill to welcome some of Illinois’ counties along its border. Or they might have to compete with movements in Illinois who want to carve out their own State. Of course, as in the Oregon case, any of these proposals would require the consent of the Illinois legislature. And the Democrats, not wanting to lose an electoral vote, would balk.

New York City has its own secession problem. Staten Island, in New York’s Richmond County on the “New Jersey” side of the Hudson, has long wanted independence from the City. Practical efforts go back to the 1980s tenure of Gov. Mario Cuomo (D). But the New York State legislature has adamantly refused. Mayor Rudy Giuliani made connection to the City tolerable – but his successors have, if anything, re-provoked secessionist sentiment. Last year Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island), the only Republican representing any part of New York City, said:

I think it’s time to secede. There’s no real value in being part of this city or the state. We didn’t vote for this mayor; we didn’t vote for this governor [Kathy Hochul]; and we didn’t vote for this president [Joe Biden], but we’re always the ones getting screwed.

Analysis

Democrats do not like interstate or intra-state secession movements. Mike LaChance of The Gateway Pundit suggested that the most common reason is not wanting to set a “bad precedent.” But that begs the question of why it would be such a bad precedent. Ordinary people in Western Oregon would still vote for their favorite “solons of Salem,” and would realize a financial dividend. Think of all those State roads in Eastern Oregon, for the upkeep of which they would no longer pay.

That might appeal to the Non-Mavens of Multnomah. But the Mavens want to hold on to their power. The power to make the lives of others miserable, is as addictive as is the marijuana they allow people to grow and sell in that region. (Psychological addiction is as powerful as is the physical addiction that opioids and barbiturates provoke.) Idaho might even have reason to pay a lump sum to Oregon, to get land on which to settle its already burgeoning population, with more people moving in every day. But the Mavens aren’t interested.

Twenty big cities

Similar dynamics likely also work in other Democratic strongholds. But at least one Democrat knows that’s a dead end. Adam Frisch, who almost defeated Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) in Colorado’s Third District in 2022, gave this stark assessment:

Twenty big cities, Aspen and Martha’s Vineyard—that’s what’s left of the Democratic Party. And I’m not exactly sure those twenty big cities are getting the best version of the Democratic Party.

He didn’t name those twenty cities, but CNAV can guess at the list of twenty metropolitan television markets:

• New York City
• Chicago, Ill.
• Washington, D.C.
• Baltimore, Md.
• Philadelphia, Pa.
• Boston, Mass.
• Portland, Ore.
• Seattle, Wash.
• San Francisco, Calif.
• Los Angeles, Calif.
• Honolulu, Hawaii
• Las Vegas, Nev.
• Albuquerque, N.M.
• Denver, Colo.
• Austin, Texas
• Houston, Texas
• Atlanta, Ga.
• Memphis, Tenn.
• Minneapolis, Minn. (and its Twin City, St. Paul)
• Detroit, Mich.

Democrats are the Party of cities that dominate their States by reason of sheer population density. City values do not comport with country values – which drives the Rural-Urban Divide. That, in turn, drives the Great Sortation, of which secessionist movements like these are the result.